I guess like most people here I need a little support right now, so I am taking the plunge and writing, instead of driving myself a little crazier than normal…!
I am in my fifth week of being off work. I was walking down the road with my 2 small boys and my left leg/groin spasmed/tightened and I limped to my friends house and got the boys in and asked for some pain relief! My leg was now completely stiff, couldn’t raise my knee up to take shoes off, and couldn’t lower myself to sit in a normal height seat. Regular ibuprofen didn’t do much, but I was able to walk in a very slow strange fashion home an hour later, but since then I have the same issue. I booked to see a physio the day after, thinking it must be a muscle that needed stretching out, the stretches he gave me to do made it worse, and I visited my GP later in the week. I was and am finding holding my urges to wee almost uncontrollable, I find it hard to get down to the toilet, sticking my leg out and lowering myself in quite an ungainly fashion!
The GP has been awesome, prescribed naproxen, co codamol, and diazepam, but no little effect. 3days later he referred me to a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who has asked for MRI (focused I imagine on the hip area) which is this afternoon. I saw the GP again last week, explaining how absolutely fatigued I feel, I do have 2 small children, but I do get more sleep now, and he ordered a blood test to check for deficiencies.
GP rang yesterday asking me to go in, and I have way, way below average Vitamin D levels, so have started a 30,000 iu weekly supplement. So hoping thins explains the fatigue, weakness, stiffness in my whole body, and the weird leg thing should show up today. I feel like I am in a fog most of the time, I am struggling to dig out words and remember things that are on the tip of my tongue! I feel pretty scared of what is going on, but at least have the vit D thing to hold on to, and hopefully this will improve in 2/3 weeks time.
My mum has MS, I am now 41, and she was diagnosed when I was 2. I have grown up with MS, have raised many pounds for MS, have seen my Mum support many newly diagnosed sufferers in the past, as she is very positive about it. She keeps asking me if I have discussed with the GP about investigating more, I haven’t… I figure he will work that out, and has been fantastic up until now. I wonder sometimes if I am imagining some of the things I feel, and as a psychiatric nurse turned psychotherapist, imagine sometimes that my physical symptoms are a manifestation of my low mood.
I work in the NHS and have done for over 20yrs, and my boss has been great, I really want to get back to work, but I can’t drive, can’t sit comfortable for long enough to see a patient, and feel so wiped out I doubt I would get through too much at the moment. Now I have stopped though, I realise that I have actually been feeling pretty rubbish for a while, with odd muscle/nerve pain, but focusing on other people’s problems at work has been a great distraction.
I will get back to work, I know. I am the main earner, my husband has been a stay at home Dad, I must get back to work in some capacity, but in the 5th week now, I can’t say I feel any better. When I rest my leg etc feels a little better, but then on walking and what I would say normal exertion, I really feel it. Anyway, let’s see what this afternoon brings, not sure how long I’ll wait for the results…
thanks for reading xx